It was a unique time—that time after the nation had split the atom, but before it was split by an obscure land in Southeast Asia. Facebook, Twitter and the other things that isolate us lay far in the future. Individual imagination, not video games, created a world which we eagerly explored. But, beneath the idyllic veneer of the 1950s, events were generating tremendous stresses.

Sputnik brought the space race. Then, Cuba pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war. A president was assassinated, and a subset of the population struggled to secure their rights as Americans. A far off place called Vietnam hurled to the forefront and tore at the very soul of the nation. These events formed a volatile soup and produced values that would define a generation.

Cheese Grits consist of thirty short stories and takes place over a period of almost two decades. They show the joy and wonder of childhood, the awkwardness of young romance, and crumbling of the world as we knew it. The significant events of those times are presented from the unique and unfiltered point of view of the children who were deeply affected by them.

Humor, fear, and naïve confidence all come into play as the nation’s largest generation navigates its way toward young adulthood.